A new era of NHL live-game production is upon us, and it’s glorious. Amazon Prime is two weeks into it’s landmark foray into NHL broadcasting, and to say its been a success so far would be a massive understatement.
Last week marked Prime’s inaugural “Monday Night Hockey” broadcast when the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins. On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning did battle as the only NHL game on the schedule and, with all eyes on the streaming platform, Amazon’s prowess was on full display with everything from its beautiful graphics and visuals to a refreshing and sharp group of panelists, commentators and analysts, along with crisp, clean in-game production.
Maple Leafs fans rarely agree on anything, but all seemed to be on the same page in praising the streaming Goliath’s broadcast quality during and after Toronto’s win over the Lightning. Many also took the time to call out the difference in quality compared to TSN, which hosts some local games, and national-broadcaster Sportsnet.
It was the first of six Maple Leafs broadcasts that Prime will air this season, and plenty of fans are hoping there will be many more to come in the years ahead as streaming giants like Apple, Netflix and Amazon look poised to take control of the live sports landscape in the not-too-distant future as traditional cable subscriptions continue to drop.
Watching this TNT-like Amazon Prime broadcast has me feeling like I was kidnapped and held hostage in a cellar the last 10 years forced to watch the shittiest hockey broadcasts imaginable and now someone has let me out to see the light
— Roberts&Tucks (@ldl716) October 21, 2024
10 minutes in and this is one of the best experiences I’ve had watching a leafs game. Unbelievable broadcast
— “Banksy” (@Banx_Leaf) October 21, 2024
Amazon Prime Maple Leafs coverage making Sportsnet and TSN look like moldy bread.
— Ari Shapiro (@ari_shapiro) October 22, 2024
Leafs are back on Prime next week against the undefeated Jets. Gonna be a good one.
— Leafs Updates (4-2-0) (@LeafsUpdates21) October 22, 2024
I don’t know if it’s just because it’s different but this Amazon broadcast is a breath of fresh air. I’m enjoying it a million times more than Sportsnet.
— I Hate My Favourite Teams (@CarcelMousineau) October 22, 2024
I know Amazon is the enemy and everything… but they really have their finger on the pulse more than the rest of the super companies, no? Sell them HNIC and be done with it.
— Doug Doucette (@DeuceDoucette) October 22, 2024
have to hand it to whoever designed this broadcast, in two periods I’ve gone from being annoyed this game was on Prime to annoyed not ALL of our games are on Prime
— katie (@itsmitchmarney) October 22, 2024
It’s nice that Prime are giving us a reminder that you can broadcast an NHL game without shoving a betting ad in every 30 seconds
— ⭐️Dan⭐️ (@265Kilometres) October 21, 2024
Of course, it helped that Toronto fans — who often lament the “anti-Leaf bias” every time a broadcast says something negative about the team — felt their squad was getting a fair shake from Amazon’s commentators and studio analysts.
Say some nice things about the franchise with the biggest fanbase in the league, receive mass praise for your broadcast from said fanbase. Simple yet effective.
A broadcaster in an intermission thinks the Leafs will win the Atlantic
I’m flabbergasted
I was told by Craig Simpson and Kevin Bieksa that the Leafs are terrible
— The North Team™️ (@tmlfaninvan) October 22, 2024
I think the funniest fucking thing about this Amazon broadcast is like they won a giant ass fanbase over in like 10 whole minutes by just being like “eh yea the Leafs are pretty good”
— BRiCk (@Accept_Crime_) October 22, 2024
God it is refreshing not hearing Cuthbert and Simpson just constantly dump on the Leafs.
— GrebenKwn (@KwnStorm) October 21, 2024
It wasn’t all roses for fans, however, as some lamented the confusion of the game being exclusively broadcast on Prime — a platform that many older fans aren’t subscribed to.
Some had complaints about the production quality, too, but they seemed to be in the minority.
Change isn’t for everyone.
Leafs only on Prime tonite?
Sad! Feel for the older generation who been Leaf fans for over 70 years and only have basic cable
Shame on @TSN_Sports @Sportsnet— RockDee (@DidomizioRocco) October 21, 2024
Having the #Leafs game on Amazon prime is very lame. You can’t even go out and watch the game at a bar with friends definitely a disconnect move.
— MDee14 | Marcel Dee (@MDee14) October 22, 2024
The Leafs being broadcasted only on Prime in Canada is criminal.
— David Scala (@davidscala) October 21, 2024
The first Leaf game on Prime is brutal. Please let this be the first and last season they have any broadcast rights!
— Kelly Burns (@Kelly_burns) October 22, 2024
The picture quality of this Leafs game on Amazon Prime is not good.
— christopher (@heychristofur) October 21, 2024
Daily Hive’s Adam Laskaris provided a good explanation as to why the audio, specifically, may have sounded a bit off to people tuning into an Amazon NHL broadcast for the first time.
Re: the sounds of the #Leafs broadcast on Prime, can confirm the Monday Night Hockey broadcast is employing an “enhanced microphone package” that includes picking up ice, crowd noises, and ambience.
Noticed a lot of comments on the crowd sounding different, that’s why.
— Adam Laskaris (@adam_la2karis) October 22, 2024
Whether fans like it or not, it appears the NHL-Amazon streaming era is here to stay, at least in Canada. During this past offseason, the league and Prime announced a two-year partnership that will see Amazon stream “all national regular season Monday night NHL games in English for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 NHL seasons in Canada at no extra cost to Prime Members.”
The streaming giant also announced a new live “whiparound studio show,” which is airing all season long on Thursday nights in Canada. The weekly broadcast, which premiered last week, feature live look-ins, highlights and expert analysis of every NHL game that night — similar to a hockey version of the mega-popular NFL RedZone production that hooks millions of viewers every Sunday.
Aside from its production quality, Prime’s Monday Night Hockey also curated a top-notch group of announcers and commentators, including veteran play-by-play man John Forslund, former NHLers-turned-analysts Jody Shelley, Thomas Hickey and Shane Hnidy, veteran Canadian sportscasters Adnan Virk, Andi Petrillo, and former women’s hockey star Blake Bolden. Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier will also be featured on some broadcasts throughout the season, along with “a mix of local guests.”
Amazons has also yielded rave reviews for its hit, six-part, behind the scenes docuseries titled FACEOFF: Inside the NHL, which has been a favourite for hockey fans on both sides of the border and has already produced several viral moments that hockey fans have not been privy to in the past.
Prime has a new NHL doc and it chose an incredible teaser clip of Connor McDavid after a Finals loss:
“That’s not f-king good enough. It’s the f-king Finals. Dig the f-k in right f-king now. Whatever the f-k you have. Let’s get one f-king win at home.”pic.twitter.com/WAkStbiTz4
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 3, 2024
Hockey is just Amazon’s latest live-sports venture, as the streaming platform has bought the rights to show certain games of other major sports leagues over the past couple years, including the NFL, NBA, MLB and more.
Netflix, meanwhile, will mark a significant move into live sports broadcasting when it airs two NFL Games this upcoming Christmas Day, while also recently striking a massive deal to stream WWE’s flagship program, Raw, every Monday night along with some of the wrestling entities major events like SummerSlam and WrestleMania. Apple TV has also dipped their toes into the live sports market, securing major broadcast deals with, among others, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball.
As far as hockey in Canada goes, Sportsnet has held the national NHL broadcast rights in Canada since 2013 when the Rogers-owned conglomerate inked a 12-year deal worth $5.2 billion CAD. There’s expected to be plenty of competition when SN’s rights expire after the 2025-26 NHL season, and the streaming giants listed above are expected by many to be right in the mix.
If this new avenue of consuming live sports through streaming platforms is a sign of things to come for the hockey broadcast landscape — which all signs point to that being the case — the game appears to be in very good hands.